Will Loomis v. Jessica Cornish

Plaintiff Will Loomis is the composer of a song called “Bright Red Chords.” He brought this lawsuit alleging .that Defendant Jessica Cornish (publicly known as Jessie J) and a team of high-profile songwriters led by Lukasz Gottwald (publicly known as Dr. Luke) stole a two-measure vocal melody from Bright Red Chords and used it as the theme for the verse melody in their hit song “Domino.” The district court granted the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment, concluding that Loomis did not' put forth any potentially admissible evidence to establish that the Domino songwriters had access to Bright Red Chords. We affirm.

I. Background

Loomis composed and recorded Bright Red Chords with his band, Loomis and the Lust, in Santa Barbara, California, in 2008, and thereafter obtained a copyright registration for the song by depositing a copy with the U.S. Copyright Office. Loomis then released Bright Red Chords on a 2009 album, Nagasha, and a 2010 album, Space Camp. He also created a music video for the song.

Bright Red Chords was Nagasha’s feature track and it garnered some attention in 2009 and 2010. For example, the Bright Red Chords video won the MTVU “Best Freshman” video…